This invention relates to kneeling aids that are commonly in use for providing assistance for a person to assume a kneeling position, and to cushion the knees when kneeling on a hard surface, such as a floor or the ground. These products are sometimes called "kneelers" and are used for gardening, cleaning floors and in construction trades, such as flooring or concrete finishing, requiring work at floor level.
Such devices are presently made by welding a pair of upstanding steel tubes, having horizontal handles at their upper ends, to a horizontal steel plate having upstanding ribs along both edges to provide stiffness. The steel plate is covered with a flat layer of resilient padding having marginal comfort for the user's knees. This is biomechanically incorrect, as the human knee is extremely sensitive to discomfort due to pressure on the ligamentum patellae; the part of the knee in contact with the floor when kneeling. That is the very tender spot the physician strikes with the mallet to check your reflexes.
The upstanding ribs along the edges of the platform also represent a safety hazard. If the user mis-judges slightly, he or she may be injured by dropping to a kneeling position with the knees right on top of the sharp metal edge. One dominant manufacturing cost in presently known kneelers is in the covering of the entire surface of the steel platform with that layer of padding that still is uncomfortable, since, no matter where the user kneels on the pad, the load is always concentrated directly on the ligamentum patellae.
Available kneeling aids are also quite heavy and bulky to ship and store. Some models are available with the upstanding tubes segmented with slip joints to reduce shipping and storage bulk, but that adds to the cost and weight. Another problem in using the heavy steel kneeling aids is that they require handling by both handles in order to avoid barking the ankles on the metal plate edges, and that metal plate will often damage the surfaces of floors or uncured concrete.